Who'll Come A-Waltzing Matilda With Me?
by Hawk-Masters
Summary: After winning the championship, Ōarai finds themselves in a rut with no one to face against until a little known school from Australia asks them to come and participate in a match to draw more attention to them and keep the school open. Many surprises await the girls in the land down under, especially for one Reki-jo club member. Chapters will be published hopefully bi-weekly
1. Chapter 1

_I've been playing World of Tanks for a few months now, and I got into a clan that was all about Girls und Panzer, clan ANZIO. Thanks to them, I started watching some episodes again, as I had watched the series in January, and I became inspired to write my own story. I would like to shout out to members abnotsu, TheTeaTimeBandit, GuP_M18_92, and n41 for helping me with details regarding the world of GuP. I would also like to shout out to the stories and authors "Boys und Sensha-dō" by Stellar Magic and "In Strange Waters" by CrossTycoon, whose stories I have read and enjoyed a lot and were inspirations to write my own. I hope you all enjoy this story and please support it if you'd like. Constructive criticism welcomed, flames will be ignored._

* * *

No one had a job more stressful, and yet equally as relaxing, as Ryan. He sighed as he looked through paperwork that was more or less covering the entirety of his desk, most of it concerning of matters financial. The New South Wales School of Tankery was in itself a wonder to behold, as even though co-education schools that offered Sensha-dō did exist, though few in number, the school was the only one that was purely all male, and to top it off, only did Sensha-dō. Well, except for Ryan's sister. As he was the president of the student council, he was in charge of the whole school, and meant that he could allow his sister, Rachael, to come in and join her brother as the only two members of the council and indeed the whole school that did not drive tanks. Because it was such an oddity (an all-boys school), the government of Australia funded it completely, and all Ryan had to do was ask and he would receive almost anything, so long as it helped the school retain the title of "Australia's Finest". Not much work there to deal with.

On the other hand, it was a school of all boys and that meant that many things ended up getting broken, and it was his job to find out what was broken and report it to their officials in Canberra so they could replace said items. Not only that, but as it was an all-boys school, recruitment and enrollment usually meant managing people from all different corners of the world. It was a Godsend that majority knew English or enough to get by; otherwise there would be another thing to worry about. And of course the matches for the school were hard to come by. Yes they would play New Zealand and New Guinea every year, but interim, they usually fought local schools. Sometimes they would have exhibition matches for schools from out of country, such as India, France, even a few American schools. This year, though, enrollment was stagnant, and no other schools wanted to play matches, as it was coming up to the big game between New Zealand, New Guinea, and Australia.

All this was giving Ryan a headache, so when someone opened the door to the Student Council Office, he let out a sigh of relief. He was even more relaxed when he saw who it was who came in. At about 5 foot 8 inches tall, Manfred Siegel, or Manny as he was known by everyone, was a clear two inches and a half taller than Ryan, as well as having messy chestnut hair that indicated that he had just finished exercising. Funny, considering there wasn't a bead of sweat anywhere on him, and his grey t-shirt was absent of stains. In the pocket of his jeans, Ryan noticed a disk in a clear CD case, and without a word, the guest took it out and tossed it on the desk, scattering a few papers in the process.

"I assume you want me to play this little mix tape of yours?" Ryan asked. Manny chuckled.

"Just put the damn thing in the DVD player." He replied, a thick Scottish accent dripping off of every word. "I had this thing recorded from about two weeks ago."

The president shrugged and got up, disk in hand, and placed it in the player while the projector started up. As soon as it was ready to go, he pressed play and sat with Manny on the two seated couch in the office. He frowned as he saw the logo of the Japanese National Sensha-dō Competition appear and the names of the two final teams appear.

"I've defiantly heard of Kuromoromine before, Black Forest Academy that is, but who are these Ōarai Sheilas?"

Manny just held up a finger, as the announcers played back the past games that Kuromoromine played and won, earning a scoff from the president. The next bit, though, made him pay more attention, as it covered the previous matches against Saunders, Anzio, and Pravda. When the recap was over, Ryan let out a soft, thoughtful "Hmmm".

"What you thinking, Ryo?" The Scotsman asked.

"Well, they seem pretty lucky at first, especially against those Seppos. I mean, a short 75er managing to hit a moving target at the same time as a 17 pounder? Ridiculous. Anzio as well, they just got cocky. And Pravda they were so lucky that I swear one of them must have a golden horseshoe shove up their-"

"I get it. You don't need to indulge me in all that detail. Just say they were lucky is all."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyways, then when I thought back a bit more closely, it appears as much skill as luck. Like when they used their StuG to take out the Pravda flag tank by embedding it in the snow bank. Takes some real brass ones to pull off the stunts they're getting away with."

As the match played out, the two watched silently for the next 4 hours, only making any noise when Kuromoromine revealed their Maus, and when Ōarai managed to defeat the gargantuan tank. When it got to the last showdown between Miho and Maho, both men were on the edge of their seats, eager to know how it would end. Of course, it ended with a bang, and a huge grin from Ryan.

"I'll be damned. They pulled it off. A small team defeating such a giant as Black Forest. David and Goliath-esq, ain't it?"

Manny nodded. "I think we should invite them."

It wasn't a huge surprise to Ryan, as he had guessed it earlier. Still…

"What makes you think they will come? And if we have them come, we still have the OTT coming up in two weeks. No way we can plan an exhibition match and then be ready for the big game."

"What if they stay for two months and participate in the tournament?"

This question did take him off guard. He ran a hand through his blonde hair and closed his tired emerald eyes, trying to shake off a headache that was coming on. The whole thing would be good for the school, as many people would watch the games, more than usual. It would bring in much needed attention, leading to more students, as well as more out of country teams, generating revenue for the area and the country. But there was the issue of getting them into the tournament. An idea suddenly popped into his head.

"Yknow, maybe we can have those Ōarai gals participate. Honorary participants I believe are allowed. It would be a most interesting tournament, with four teams rather than three."

The president quickly grabbed his phone and began dialing the number for Rachael as Manny took out the DVD and began to walk out. As the phone was ringing, Ryan quickly called to the other boy. "Want anyone from your blokes to go with Rachael?"

It didn't even take a second before Manny simply replied: "Roscoe."

* * *

It only took the Scotsman about ten minutes to find the garage, which wasn't that much of an achievement. The sodding thing was massive, almost impossible to miss. Upon entering through the door in the side, he was greeted by the sounds of wrenches and grunts from a Comet in a very faded olive green color over in the center. Sighing, he walked over to the guys who were doing work, passing the numerous Sentinel AC Is that made up the bulk of their team. One of them was on top of the rear, with the engine compartment open, working and working up a sweat, while another stood at the very rear, holding a toolbox and swearing in Spanish. The raven haired boy on top just wiped his brow and called out to another in the tank itself.

"Alright John!" He called in his Yorkshire accent. "Turn her on!"

A loud roar came from the vehicle and the two men smiled, closing up the compartment as the engine turned off. A white cowboy hat emerged from the inside, and an equally happy Texan climbed out. "She sure sounds lovely, don't she?"

"Like a lion's roar." The Englishman replied.

"Aye, a léon, but that does not excuse you from using me as una mesa." The Spaniard quipped. All three went silent for a moment and quickly stood at attention when they noticed Manny, all three standing up straight in their ANZAC drab green uniforms with shorts folded up to just above the knee and jet black jack boots laced up tight. He just smiled and saluted lazily before shaking the cowboy's hand. "Maintenance on the wee lass Roscoe?"

Jonathan Roscoe smirked, his deep brown eyes filled with pride. "Yessir, hoss! Got the baby sounding well, moving well, and grooving well. She'll be ready for the tourney alright, you can count on that."

He next went to the Englishman and Spaniard, Henry and Santos respectively. The latter remembered he had the toolbox still in his hand and almost dropped it to the floor, making the former shake his head.

"Santos isn't too keen on using those hands for anything more than shooting the gun." He sighed.

"Hey! When we get into combat and I miss, you'll be wishing you had let me be, puta!"

The commander just let out a relaxing breath. "Calm down you two. Henry, he is a good shot and we do need him at peak performance, and Santos, it doesn't hurt to help out with maintaining the ol' girl. Now I need to talk to you all about something really important."

Santos, Henry, and John sat down on the Comet in anticipation of what Manny would say. Of course, when he told them about the plan, they were in various states of curiosity and disbelief.

"What in tarnation? I've never heard of Ōarai before! You sure you didn't knock your head on something?"

"I'm pretty sure Manny didn't, and I can see why this is a good thing. Still I'm wondering if they even will accept to this."

Santos didn't say anything, which was surprising for the loud mouthed and bombastic Spaniard, but that didn't really last long until a long and nitro induced stream of Spanish swear words, ending with kicking the toolbox, which ended up hurting his foot and making him fall on to his rear in a fairly comical way, bringing a few chuckles from the other guys.

"I believe he said somewhere in there that he wasn't too keen on getting some chicas come over and paint everything pink." Henry said.

"Look lads," The Scotsman sighed. "It's for the good of the school. And besides, Rachael is going as our ambassador. I think that'll put them at ease, at least for a while until they get told that we're an all-boys school. It's extra practice for the Tournament, and it's one more team to beat, a challenge for us. We need a real challenge and I think facing against the Japanese champions would be a good thing."

There were some soft grumblings coming from the Texan and the Spaniard, but not really any more complaints.

"Oh, and Roscoe is going too."

Until that bombshell went off…

"I'm WHAT?"

"You heard me. You are going on a trip with Rachael as my stand in. I have to get the other lads ready if we're having guests."

"You know I hate flying. Stupid way of traveling."

Manny just shook his head. "You are going whether you like it or not. My orders."

"….. Oh fine. Just when do I go on my adventure?"

The sound of the door opening diverted their attention to a petite girl, with long red hair and sparkling pools of sapphire for eyes behind glasses, who was walking towards them. "Ryan sends his complements and his apologies." She smiled. "If everything goes the way it should, we should be leaving tomorrow about noon or so."

Even Roscoe had to smile a bit when Rachael came up. Just her always carefree attitude and bubbly personality that made any room feel warmer and more comfortable. Not that any guys in the school were attracted to her. On the contrary, she had earned the nickname "Ma" for how she seemed to care for everyone in the school.

"Tell Ryan we accept his complements and that he can stuff the apologies, or is it the other way around?" John continued smiling, until his face suddenly dropped. "Wait, tomorrow at noon?"

"Yep, so go pack your things tonight. We're booked for a noon flight, that is, if they accept."

"Alright Ma. Will do. Anything else?"

She smiled gently. "Don't make us look bad, or I'll make this year and the next a living hell for you, ok?" Jonathan gulped and nodded. "Good. I'll text you when we have word back. See you tomorrow!"

As she bounced off out of the garage, the Texan let out a breath before wiping his forehead. "I swear she scares the daylights outta me sometimes."

"Speaking of scaring, where's Sam?" Manny asked. Sam was their Australian radioman, and he hadn't seen him all day.

"I think that bushman's out all day." Henry replied, sighing once again. "I checked his hut and he was still asleep."

Manny pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. The "hut" Henry spoke of was a nickname for the houses that the students lived in just three minutes from the school, consisting of a bedroom, a living room, and a bathroom. As for Sam, he had a nasty reputation for showing up very unkempt and rough, always sleeping till late and missing sometimes a whole day because he decided to sleep through the day. However, he did have the dependability when it was needed on the battlefield, and no one at the school could relay positions and information as clear and quickly as he could. Well, clear as in they could understand him. Because he was born out in the bush, he had a very distinct way of talking, very thick Aussie accent with a drawl, mixed with mushing words together to get off combinations so profound that Ryan had joked about making a special dictionary for Sam to understand him.

"Well, he'll turn up as soon as he finds out what's going on." The commander smiled. "As for now, let's take the Comet out for a spin."

* * *

The soft ding of an email being received woke Yuzu Koyama up from her nap. She had been working long and hard throughout the day at Ōarai Prefectural Girls High School lining up schools to participate in matches for the months ahead, but it was hard work, what with some of the schools not interested in facing the national champions and others already booked, the infamous "championship fatigue" where no one wants to participate in Sensha-dō or if they do, in a limited capacity, for the first few months after the championship. There was a chance that St. Gloriana would be interested in a rematch, but even they had a busy schedule. She had even considered searching out schools in other countries in the surrounding areas like China, but even they were too preoccupied with their own matches to even think about inviting a foreign team. This was why when she saw the email titled "An Offer to Challenge to Japanese National Sensha-dō Competition Champions", she immediately called out "President!"

Anzu Kadotani, the Student Council President, and Momo Kawashima, the Student Council PR Manager, looked up from their chairs and rushed over to where Yuzu was. Upon seeing the message, Anzu grinned and patted Yuzu on her back. "Get Miho here. She should be involved in this decision."

Elsewhere in the school, Miho Nishizumi was sitting down for lunch with her friends and fellow crew members of their Panzer IV: Saori Takebe, the team's radio operator; Hana Isuzu, the gentle and composed gunner; Yukari Akiyama, the excitable loader is obsessed with anything tank related; and Mako Reizei, the gloomy driver with low blood pressure. They were the flag tank that took down Kuromoromine's flag tank, the Panzer VI Tiger, commanded by Miho's sister, Maho. In the past two weeks since winning the championship, the Sensha-dō team was in sort of a rut. They had only practiced twice so far, as Miho didn't want to push the other tankers too hard, but it looked as if there was no reason for them to even practice, what with the other teams already making plans that did not involve the champion school.

"Attention! " Came the sound of Momo over the loudspeaker. "Will the student Miho Nishizumi report to the Student Council office as soon as possible? I repeat, will Miho Nishizumi report to the student council office immediately?"

The aforementioned girl sighed as she had only just gotten through the line and was about to start eating. "I wonder what this is about?" Hana asked.

"Maybe they found a school to go up against finally." Yukari suggested. Saori let out a huff as she ate a mouthful of her food. "You'd think that maybe they'd wait until we had finished eating." She pouted. Miho nervously laughed.

"Well if they did find a school, I'm sure it's important enough for me to come down as soon as possible. I'll try not to be long!"

In a few minutes, she was in the Student Council Office, sat in front of the three members of the Council. The President was laying down on the couch munching on a dried sweet potato as Momo held a piece of paper in her hand and Yuzu sat ready with her laptop. The Public Relations Manager handed Miho the paper, with a message typed in English as well as very good Japanese.

"Could you read that and tell us what you think?" Anzu asked. Miho nodded and began to read aloud the message:

_"Dear members of Ōarai Prefectural Girls High School Student Council and Sensha-dō team,_

_I would like to first congratulate you on your spectacular win to become Japan's national champions, and welcome you to what I hope will be the first steps in expanding your horizons. I truly hope that we can, in the future, collaborate together more often._

_With the preliminary pleasantries out of the way, it is time to get down to brass tacks; you seem like the perfect team to come to our school, the New South Wales School of Tankery, located in Australia for an exhibition match. We have ourselves a reputation similar to yours in that we are Australia's finest Sensha-dō team. I would like to believe that a match between us would bring attention to both our schools._

_I shall not lie. Our school is in desperate need of new students. No doubt you may have heard rumors about schools that practice Sensha-dō and allow boys to participate. We are in a similar boat, though while those schools do regular course work, our school is the first ever exclusively Tankery school anywhere._

_If you wish to give this a shot, I can have two representatives from the school be over there by about two in the afternoon; our Public Relations Manager cum ambassador to other schools Rachael, my sister, and Jonathan "Johnny Reb" Roscoe, the driver of our lead tank._

_Please let me know as soon as you can. Best wished,_

_Ryan_

_President of the Student Council of New South Wales School of Tankery"_

There was brief silence in the room before Momo spoke up. "Well?"

Miho placed her hand on her chin. "Well… I think that it won't do any harm if they send their representatives over at least. I think we should see what they have to say."

Anzu smiled. "Yuzu! Tell them they can send their representatives. We'll have our teams ready to greet them by the tanks!"

She nodded and quickly typed up a response and sent it off, making a small whooshing noise to indicate that it had successfully been sent.

Over in Australia, Ryan was just now checking his email once again awaiting a response when he received the message from Ōarai. He quickly brought his phone up and called Rachael.

_"Hello?"_

"Rachael! It's a go! Tell Roscoe, you two are heading out on the first flight tomorrow to Japan!"

_"Will do. Let's hope things go smoothly."_

"Same here. Let me know how it goes."

* * *

If there was one thing Roscoe hated more than someone else driving the Comet, it was flying. Even though whenever he did fly he almost always fell asleep through the entire flight, he still disliked his boots not being on the ground. Rachael had to put up with his moaning in the hour leading up to the flight (which as it turned out was at 9 in the morning, meaning that Roscoe had to wake up at 7, something he rarely did) and when they stopped for lunch at the airport. Fortunately he had finally shut up about it, and instead went to talking to her about the match between Ōarai and Kuromoromine, which he watched the night before, while they were being driven to the school by a taxi.

"So they killed that super heavy, super powerful tank, the Mouse-"

"Maus. It's German."

"Right, Maus. They took it out by using the Hetzer to prop it up, the Type 89 blocking the turret, and their Panzer IV shooting it down on to the deck of the rear?"

"That's right. Very unorthodox and very effective. I'm still a bit upset about having to go away from my Comet, but I think I feel a bit better about meeting them. This could turn out great, except for one thing."

"Oh?"

"What about when we tell them that we're an all guy's school?"

"Think positive, John. Don't send out negative thoughts, or it'll happen."

He sighed. "I swear sometimes you act like the granddaughter of Oddball."

Rachael just laughed. To be honest, she was as nervous as Roscoe was, even though both of them didn't show it. They had to get this right. If they didn't get Ōarai to come, or if there wasn't big enough attention, they could have their team cut in half, or even have the school disbanded. To top it off, she didn't know if any of them spoke English, and her Japanese was sub-par at best. "So what can you tell me about Ōarai?" She asked the driver in Japanese.

"Aside from that they won the championship?" He replied back with a cocky smile.

"We know that. That's why we're here."

"Well, way I heard it, the school was close to being shut down due to financiar probrems, so they started up the Sensha-dō team and managed to win the nationars."

The two in the back looked at one another. This could actually turn out great for them if Ōarai sympathized with them. Now they just had to hope that the thought of going to an all-boys school wouldn't turn them off. The driver stopped the taxi just by the front of the school, dropping the pair off and driving away. Standing there to meet them was a black haired girl with half a pair of glasses on wearing a school-girl's uniform. "Are you Recharu and Rosuko?" She asked in Engrish.

Rachael nodded. "Glad to know I won't need to speak my horrible Japanese. Where are we to meet the Sensha-dō team?"

"Follow me. They're by the garage."

As the two followed, John quickly thought how much of a sight it was to see this schoolgirl leading what appeared to be a business woman, what with Rachael wearing a black suit and heels, and a cowboy, with him in his usual white cowboy hat and drab olive ANZAC uniform. "What's your name?"

"Momo Kawashima. I am the PR Manager for the Student Councir."

It didn't take them that long to reach the garages where they found the teams all standing by/sitting on their tanks. Momo walked over quickly to the Hetzer alongside the rest of the Student Council, and Roscoe let Rachael step forward to do her bit.

"Hello, I sure hope you all can speak and or understand English. You do not want to hear my attempts at Japanese." She giggled slightly. Almost everyone looked confused. "What did she say?" Saori asked to no one in particular.

"She said you don't want to hear her speak Japanese." Yukari replied. Erwin nodded over at Anglerfish's loader. "Perhaps you should translate for us."

She nodded. "I will do my best!"

Rachael waited patiently before Yukari nodded at her. "Preese, go ahead." The Australian smiled.

"Well, my name is Rachael, and this here is Roscoe. We are the two ambassadors from our school, the New South Wales School of Tankery. With regards to our school, we are, as Ryan said in the email he sent your student council, the first school in the world that only offers tankery. Students may study what they like in the meantime, but we are first and foremost, a tankery school. However, Ryan did not mention one other thing we are the first in the world for."

Roscoe then stepped forward for his turn to speak. "Rachael here is the only gal in our school, she being Ryan's sister. Our school is the first ever all-boys school that does tankery."

There were mixed reactions across everyone's faces as he continued.

"Sure there are co-ed schools, but we are the first to only allow guys. This means that accepting students into our school is a hard process, one that may eventually be our downfall. You see, we have a reasonably large group of 4th year students that will be graduating in the next year, and we will not have enough members to keep our Sensha-dō team alive. We are exclusively funded by the government of Australia, but if we do not have enough students to fill all the spots, well, no more funding, no more school."

He took his hat off and ran a hand through his light ginger hair. "We desperately need some attention, so we thought what better way to do so than to invite the Japanese National Sensha-dō Champions to face Australia's Finest? Well, we thought that after watching a recording of your final matchup."

Jonathan was quiet, letting the crews talk amongst themselves. He exclusively looked at Miho, who after a few minutes closed her eyes and spoke up.

"I think we should accept."

The other teams looked at their leader.

"They are in a similar situation as we were. I think we should try to help them out."

The rest of Miho's crew smiled and voiced their agreement, and soon everyone else did as well, with Yukari translating for the two guests. Roscoe let out a big sigh of relief. "Alright. Sydney has a big enough dock for your ship. At Ryan's request, your tanks will be stationed in our garages and y'all can stay on the school in the guest houses."

He turned and looked to Rachael and let out a gentle smile. This was going to actually work. They would actually save their school, and maybe even get some new friends and a new school to compete against. Now they just had to survive having an all-girl Sensha-dō team staying at an all-guy Sensha-dō school. Easier said than done.


	2. Chapter 2

_So I've read all the reviews people have sent me and as you may have noticed Chapter 1 did change a bit over the past two weeks. This is probably the hardest chapter for me because I felt that some of the conversation especially between Manny and Erwin was a bit stiff, but I think that it does its purpose in that he's meeting the group for the first time. As for one who pointed out that the main character should be Erwin and that in the first chapter there is only one line of dialogue for her, I would think that the main people who would talk to sort out things would be the Student Council and Miho, along with whoever is translating. Also, starting I think Chapter 4, whenever the girls are all together in a group and being talked to/talking, just assume that Yukari is translating. Having to write "Yukari translated" or "After Yukari finished translating" is a bit of a pain for me and disrupts the flow, so assume Yukari is translating except for when Erwin and the Student Council are talking. Chapter 3 will be finished soon, so I will be starting 4 come this next week. Expect 3 to be uploaded Saturday the 3rd. Chapter 4 will be a while though, as we have one of my uncles coming over to visit for a week, and then I'm off to college on the 17th of August. I'm guessing that by the 1st of September, my 19th birthday by the way, I will have 4 ready to be uploaded. Hope you all enjoy the latest installment._

* * *

Roscoe sighed as he let the situation sink in. At the moment, he was at Miho's place having dinner along with the rest of Anglerfish Team and Rachael, with Yukari acting as the translator between the two groups while the academy ship was sailing towards Sydney. It would take the vessel four hours or so to get there, as they had to cross busy shipping lanes. It wouldn't have been bad for him on the ship if it wasn't for the fact that he was the only guy there, making him very uncomfortable, especially now he was in a room with six girls. And of course, the most recent question by Saori didn't help at all.

"Do you have a girlfriend, Rosuko?" Yukari asked for the team's radio operator. He couldn't help but gently squeeze the bridge of his nose as he simply replied that he wasn't interested in one at the moment.

"So have you ever had a girlfriend?"

This made him sigh loudly, thoughts coming back to him. _Well, I might as well indulge. Not like I'm ever gonna forget her._

"Not at the moment, no. But… once. Yeah."

After Yukari finished telling Saori, the orange haired girl lent in intensely, and after gathering that she wanted him to go on, he cleared his throat and continued.

"It was I think three years ago, after we had won the tournament. Me and the rest of the boys in the lead tank went to Japan for about a month to relax. Of course we told no one that we were tankers, they would've mocked us. Anyways, we got into this little store and I bumped into someone as I was trying to get a good look at a replay of one of the local matches that had some M4 Shermans. I love the tank, think it's better than our Ram II's."

"John, I thought the idea was to surprise them with our line up? Yknow, have some fun?" Rachael pouted. He waved her off. "It's fine. It's our lead tank that they need to look out for, and I ain't telling them that. Let them find out themselves.

"Back to the story, I accidentally bumped into this girl, and when I was apologizing, I was just struck by her. Not literally, I mean figuratively. She was a beautiful blonde with striking light blue eyes, and she apologized back in almost perfect English, smiling. I found out that she was American, like I was, and that she too loved the M4 Sherman. Well, we exchanged numbers, and we met up a few times over the course of the month we were in Japan. And, unfortunately, we had to part."

He shook his head. "Some of the best days of my life, and I had to leave her. I lost her number when my phone slipped out of my hands and under the tracks of our tank when we got back, and I've forgotten her name. I wonder if she remembers me at all."

When Yukari had finished, Saori let out a little gasp.

"That's terribur."

Roscoe shrugged. "That's life. One mean donkey that can carry you up the steepest mountains to the highest heights one day, and then kick you in the face the next."

Miho, who had been listening, suddenly went to Yukari and whispered something in her ear. The loader's eyes widened slightly and turned to the Texan. "Do you think her name might have been Kay?"

The name struck a chord. "I don't think it is. I know it is. How the heck do you know her?"

"She's the commander of Saunders Girls High School's Sensha-dō team. We faced them first round in the Nationals."

He smacked his forehead with his palm. "I never watched the full recap of your matches; I only watched the last round against Kuromoromine. Gosh darn it! Had I watched the full thing, I'd have been able to see her. Geez… Next chance I get, I'm gonna head back and see if I can't find her. But does she remember me is the big million buck question."

He smiled. With that out of the way, the next question coming from Miho was about the composition of their team.

"Well you already know we have Ram II's. Four of them actually. They complement our six Sentinels. Australian cruiser tank, armed with a little 2-pounder gun that can be really annoying. At least the AC I variant does. The AC IV has a 17-pounder mounted, and those we have two. Usually we put the Rams with the AC IVs to assist them. They have a slow turret traverse and are slower that the AC I variant. And of course our lead tank, making lucky thirteen."

"We're all very curious as to what your lead tank is."

He chuckled. "Well you have to wait to find out."

"Have you heard of Koala Forest Academy? They were in the tournament and are an Australian school I believe." Came the next question from Hana. "Can't say I do. They're based in Japan if I'm right, and we don't know much about any schools outside of our little bubble, aside from the odd schools here and there. I think maybe they moved from Queensland, because ten years ago or so was when the current school up there was established, and I'm certain that there was a school before that."

"What kind of warship is your school on?" Mako asked, taking everyone by surprise as they had thought she was fast asleep, although she looked like she could pass out any moment. "Well, short answer is we don't have a warship. Australia has plenty of open country for us to have a school on land. Cuts costs and it's nothing too strange as having to live on a floating city."

There were a few nods. Like co-ed schools, schools that were on land were not too uncommon, but rare enough that it still was somewhat of a surprise to find a school that still was on land.

"I have another question for Rosuko." Yukari was told by Miho. "If you can't tell us what your lead tank is, could you tell us about the rest of your crew then?"

He glanced over at Rachael before turning back to the team. "I don't think that's too much of a problem. Y'all already know me, I'm the driver of the tank. Not much more to know about me. I guess next guy to talk about is Sam, our radioman. He's from the bush in Australia, from the country area. I'll be damned if I can understand a word he says."

"Why's that?"

"Eh. He says some really weird stuff, odd Aussie slang that I've just never bothered to learn.

"Next one or ones in this case are Henry and Santos, the loader and gunner respectively. The two are inseparable, which is ironic considering the two are polar opposites. Santos, as you can probably guess from his name, is a hot blooded Spaniard. Really great at firing on the move, and can hit a target at about one and a half thousand meters about 7/10 times stationary. He loves to swear though, more than anyone else, and it's always in Spanish. Henry's the only guy that speaks Spanish fluently enough to understand him and have conversations with him. Like I said about them being opposites, Henry is an Englishman with a very calm demeanor. I've never really seen him blow up before in anger or excitement. He's really quick with the reload, keeping one shell in his hands at all times, allowing Santos to keep firing longer.

"And finally, our commander. Manny."

"Manii?"

"Yes, Manny. Regarded as a hero for winning an astounding victory three years ago at the tournament between us, New Zealand, and New Guinea. Everyone respects his opinion, even the ATF, the Australian Tankery Federation, as he is the commander of the entire team. Heck, if he needs something, he just needs to tell Ryan and we get it, least that's what the rumors say. Still, he's a very fallible Scotsman. If I had to name a couple of flaws it would be that he's a risk taker and he's very stubborn. Once he has his mind set on something, you just gotta go with it. Doesn't stop Henry from trying to be the voice of reason, but I think he only does that to get to say "I told you so" later. I think you'll like him. You two are very much alike."

They stopped asking questions briefly to hear the latest text message from Ryan, saying that the transportation for the tanks and crews should be already at the assigned dock by the time they arrived, and that from what he gathered, would only be about an hour more till they reached port, making it about 7 P.M. Roscoe was anxious to get back home and in his bed for the next several busy weeks. All he had to do now was to survive one more hour as the only guy.

"So do you think there are any guys that might be interested in us?"

He sweatdropped.

_Just one more hour… Lord, please let it go by quickly…_

* * *

The hour did, indeed, pass quickly, as the large ship pulled into Sydney's harbor. Every member of the tank crews were on deck looking around at the amazing sights and sounds of the bustling city, and plenty who had cameras took photos of the infamous Sydney Opera House as they passed by. The sun was still setting surprisingly, and a beautiful orange hue made the entire thing seem surreal. As they pulled into the dock, Dragon Wagons drove up ready to receive Ōarai's tanks, and were soon joined a few minutes later by-

"Opel Blitzes!" Erwin grinned. "The backbone of the Wehrmacht that ferried troops and supplies! And they are in Afrika Korps color!"

Indeed, the Opels, in the dull tan of the Afrika Korps, parked a few meters away from the gangplank, and while the team made it down, the drivers exited the vehicles aside from the one in the lead truck who stayed in the cab for the moment. As expected, they were all boys, all wearing the same drab olive ANZAC uniform with a patch sewn on of a flag consisting of a dark green field, a gold four pointed star, and four steel lightning bolts around the drab olive letters "NSWST", along with an akubra, except one who wore a grey Wehrmacht cap. When Roscoe and Rachael approached with the team behind them, the drivers all saluted sharply. "Everyone is accounted for, Roscoe." Spoke the driver with the Wehrmacht cap, a German accent inkling through. "Ve are ready vhen you are to go."

"Good. Let's not keep them waiting, Krieger."

The door to the Opel in front then opened, the guy jumping out and slamming the door behind him and walking around to the group of girls. He was 5 foot 8 inches tall with short chestnut hair, and his uniform was opened at the top few buttons to show a white undershirt and dog tags. His jackboots were old and rugged, but laced up tight, and his face was youthful and handsome. Anglerfish team and the rest of the Ōarai girls immediately felt an aura of authority as he stood in front of them. Roscoe grinned at the taller boy and turned to the girls. "This, lassies, is Manny. Leader of our Tankery team."

Yukari translated, and the girls all bowed politely, earning a chuckle from the Scotsman. "Well, they sure got these lassies well trained, eh Rossy?"

He just shook his head. "Why can't you take anything else seriously other than tanks?"

Manny chuckled again, but then pressed his face into a stern stare, as he caught eye of Erwin. Calmly, he walked over to her and bent down slightly to look the StuG commander in the eyes. She on the other hand had no clue what he was doing at all until he stood back up straight and saluted.

"Guten Abend Feldmarschall! Es ist gut, Sie zu sehen!"

Erwin sweatdropped and grinned sheepishly. "Danke, aber ich bin kein Feldmarschall."

"I know that. I just have respect for someone else who follows the footsteps of the Fox."

He softly laid his hand on her shoulder, smiling warmly. "I am certain that you and I will be having many future conversations on the topic of Rommel. What is your name?"

"Well, I am called Eruvin, after the Desert Fox himself. I'm part of the Reki-jo club."

"Ah yes, history buffs. I am doubly sure that we will be good friends then."

Manny turned to the rest of the team. "As for everyone else, feel free to pile into which ever vehicle. I would like to request the team's commander and her team as well as the student council to get into mine. It's a long drive to the school, so I hope you brought something to keep you occupied. There is enough room for your bags in the back."

He stopped and turned back to his new 'friend'. "If you would like to hop into the cab, I'm sure we can make the drive pass by with conversation."

Saori gasped slightly and went over to Erwin. "I think he likes you!" She whispered in her ear. The latter girl turned slightly pink and was stunned. "How do you know?"

"I've read that if guys like you, they'll want to talk with you in private, and that if they have a vehicle and ask you to be in the front, you should do so or risk offending them and hurting their feelings!"

Luckily no one saw the Reki-jo club member turn a shade darker of pink, leaning into red, as she took in what Saori said. "Sure, I'd like to converse with you." She replied to Manny, who grinned and clapped his hands. "Alright lads and lassies! Let's get this convoy moving out!"

Erwin managed to escape Saori before she could give any more advice on courtship, though she gave the former a wink before getting in the back of the truck. As soon as the StuG commander opened the door to the cab and started to climb in, a hand was extended to her. "Need a lift?" The Scot asked. She looked at the hand for a few seconds before nodding and grabbing it. She would have thought his hands to be coarse and rough from working in a tank, but they were surprisingly gentle with the odd callouses at where his fingers met his hand. Soon as everyone was in, Manny started the engine up of the truck and they moved out.

He didn't lie when he said that the drive was long, and nor did he lie when he said about conversing with Erwin. The Scot had told her all about the fact that their school specialized in one main way of fighting, though they would adapt for the situation as well, as well as talking about Rommel, who, like her, was his inspiration in the sense of that the two loved taking risks. He chuckled once about how he nearly lost one game by getting their tank stuck in a ditch, and while it was getting pulled out by another, the whole enemy team came and started attacking, leading them to have to fight a slugfest in which they just won by the skin of their teeth.

Erwin also told him several things about the school and herself, even telling him her actual name.

"Satoko Matsumoto huh?" He commented. "Not a bad name. Still, I think Erwin fits you rather well. I mean, look at my name. Manny. Fits like a glove. Not like Manfred Siegel. Sounds like some stuffy general or half bit action hero."

She laughed a bit at that. In fact, he was almost a natural at telling hilarious stories, and switching almost into second gear and admiring great leaders and battles, listing off his personal favorites and talking about Erwin Rommel. By the time the convoy had made it to the school, she was already feeling comfortable and had forgotten all about what Saori said, and like the others, was looking at the school in awe. It resembled more of a fort than a school, what with two oak doors marking the entrance and the building looking as if it was made with old steel, having a very blocky look to it. "This used to be an old prison for lowlifes back in the late 1800s." Roscoe explained. "We renovated a large amount of the inside, though many places are still referred to by their cell block. It used to be four stories high but it was shortened down to only two stories, and was cut in half to allow room for our garage. The little houses around the perimeter belong to each student, each with a bathroom, bedroom, and living room with television and couch. The guest houses I believe are very much similar but much more comfortable as they if I remember right used to be officers' quarters."

Some of the girls already seemed frightened at the prospects of staying at a former prison as Yukari translated, making the Texan chuckle. "Don't you worry too much. It ain't haunted and you sure as hell are gonna be fine. I promise." This made them feel a bit better.

"Alright, this is where we all split." Manny spoke loudly so everyone could hear. A few of the first years and indeed several other members of the tank crews were almost fast asleep. It _was_ about eleven at night so no one could blame them. "The student council along with the commanders of each tank will follow me to talk with Ryan for a bit. Rachael will lead the rest of you to the guest houses as she's the only one who really knows where they are. She'll join up with us at Ryan's office to lead the rest of ye lassies to the guest houses."

"What about our tanks?" Erwin asked, stifling a yawn herself.

"They're being deposited by the garage. The guys in charge will make sure nothing happens to them as they are being dropped off and will retire back to their quarters. If anyone needs a drink or needs to use the loo, there are some water fountains and a girl's lavatory around the first right and down the hall on the left."

"Why do you have a girl's bathroom?"

"Well you don't think Rachael's gonna go into a lad's bathroom, do you?" He laughed. Just before the group of tank leaders entered the building, Saori quickly went up to Erwin. "So? What did you two talk about?"

She shrugged. "Nothing special. Chatted about the schools, and spent a long time on history. He's a huge history buff and is really into the Second World War too. Just odd conversation."

"Odd conversation? Nothing special? It is special! He wanted to know more about you so he can talk more and so he knows what topics to talk about! He might also be thinking of a present or something to give you soon!" It was growing slightly clear that the radio woman was trying to play matchmaker, which was ridiculous at such an early stage.

"Saori, please." Erwin sighed, face turned light pink from the insinuations. "He's just being friendly. I enjoyed talking with him, and though he does seem a bit odd, he means well."

"Well still! Love can take many forms and one must be ever vigilant to seize upon it when the opportunity rises!"

She left the StuG commander with a wink before heading off with the others. "What was that all about?" Came a voice from behind her. She turned around quickly and ended up with her face in Manny's chest. He gently tapped her shoulder, and when she saw who it was, her face turned red, making him chuckle softly. "What you so embarrassed about?"

"I-it's nothing. I-I just didn't see you." She stuttered slightly, backing away a bit to face him.

"So what were you and that lass talking about?"

"Saori? Just… commenting on how she is interested in seeing the tanks." She partially lied. Anglerfish team after their dinner with Rachael and Roscoe went and made sure everyone knew about the tank line up and that the lead tank was still a mystery, making the girls very curious.

"Well she'll have to wait till tomorrow." He let out a sigh. "Well, let's get going."

The two were the last ones in the school doors as Roscoe and the other girls had already entered and had already gotten something to drink and took care of business. Some, it looked like, had splashed water on their faces, made apparent by the tops of their uniforms having some dark spots from the water. Roscoe cracked his knuckles before giving a playful punch to Manny's chest. "Well big guy, I gotta get some rest. Have fun."

Before the Scot could say anything else, he had already exited out through the front, leaving him as the chaperone to the ten girls. He sighed, knowing that though he needed rest too, Roscoe couldn't afford to miss out on any rest. If the rest of his crew was well rested, they could do almost as well as if he was fully rested.

The walk wasn't as long as some though it would be. It was actually just a simple down the hall, up the flight of stairs, taking a right, and right there in the former warden's office was Ryan's office, complete with a big table, flanked on the sides by couches and chairs, and at the head of the table was the blonde himself, his emerald eyes not betraying the fact that he, too was exhausted. As the girls filed in, Manny took a seat on the couch closest to Ryan, with Erwin seated next to him. Across from them sat the student council and next to them Miho. When everyone was seated, Ryan cleared his throat.

"Konbanwa, Ōarai." He said in near perfect Japanese, quickly standing up and bowing. "I'm sorry that we both forgot our pleasantries, but they can be forgiven as to the time."

As if on cue, Nakajima, the commander of Leopon team, let out a loud yawn, becoming embarrassed. "Watashi wa, mōshiwakearimasenga Raianda."

He raised a hand. "It's fine. Now, I know we all want to go to bed, but I think it would be a good idea to get as much out of the way tonight as possible with regards to the upcoming month, or months, as I hope it will be. That way we can focus on settling you and your crews in as well as the exhibition match, which I hope will gain us some more notoriety, perhaps gaining us some Japanese students and maybe coaxing the government into expanding our team."

They all nodded. It was a pretty good idea.

* * *

It wasn't a pretty good idea.

At first, everything seemed alright, talking logistics with regards to training areas, allowing the girls to use the nearby natatorium and spa to relax, and planning a few days for them to explore Sydney and the small town of Carlisle that sat only 30 minutes away to the north.

However, when Ryan started talking about the next month and told the girls that they might be participating in the tournament, which would require them to be in the country for another month or so more, it turned into a heated debate between him and Momo, with Anzu yawning and interjecting every now and then. Miho tried to get some words in, but it was focused mainly on the two, the gist of the argument being "Why couldn't you have told us about this sooner!? We could've planned for it and not accepted blindly into another competition!" and "They haven't approved yet! It's gonna take a week before they come back to me, and why are you complaining at the chance to win another competition, a chance to make yourselves known in another country, perhaps the world depending on who is there!?"

It continued for the next hour, pausing slightly as Rachael entered and took her seat, and into the next, until both sides were exhausted and Momo accepted defeat, nearly asleep herself. Ryan yawned and looked at the girls, most of them were asleep. "Rachael?" He asked. "Could you wake them and lead them to the guest houses?"

She nodded, and within a few minutes, everyone was awake. Well, everyone except Manny and Erwin. No one wanted to wake them up, aside from Momo, as the two were in as Noriko, the commander of Duck team, said, "They look so cute together!"

Indeed, the two had dozed off after Rachael came in, with Erwin falling asleep before Manny. The Reki-jo club member was sleeping with her head nestled in his chest, and he had his right arm wrapped around her. Ryan smirked and told Rachael to go ahead and take the others, as he would wake Manny up and get him to try and catch up. When the girls had left, the Australian shook the Scot's shoulder, the movement waking him up after a minute. "Ugh… What time is it?" He yawned.

"Oh, about half past midnight."

He looked down at Erwin and let out a sigh. "In that case it's past our bedtime."

Ryan would have thought that Manny would wake Erwin up, and the look on her face would be priceless after finding out that she had fallen asleep on him. Instead, he did something more… wonderful.

"Why are you picking her up instead of waking her up and walking with her?" He asked the tall boy, hiding a mischievous grin.

"It'd be rude to wake her up." He responded matter-of-factly. "She's exhausted and seems to be having a nice rest."

Oh how Ryan wished he had a camera right now. The blonde girl was in his arms almost bridal style, with her head resting by his neck and his arms holding up her legs and around her back.

"Well you're gonna have to hurry to catch Rachael."

He nodded and started off, moving smoothly and quickly out of the office. As soon as he was making headway down the stairs, Ryan closed the door and started laughing hard. "Oh my stars," He managed to say through the torrent of laughter. "This is going to end so bad and yet so good!"

Out of earshot, Manny was having trouble. Rachael was nowhere to be found, and although Erwin wasn't too heavy, (in fact, she seemed to fit into his arms like a missing jigsaw piece into a puzzle) he was starting to want to put her down and go to sleep. He managed to catch the time on the clock above the door and swore silently. It was already ten minutes to one, and he was no closer to finding Rachael. He could try and find the guest houses, but he had no clue where they were, which only left one option…

With a big sigh, he resigned to the reality of the matter and started to his hut, just barely managing to punch in the numbers with his middle finger to the lock, and opened the door with his foot, closing it after he got in. The lights were off, and he was able to just switch them on with his shoulder flicking the switch on. It made Erwin stir slightly, but she resumed sleeping, inadvertently nuzzling into his neck, sending shivers down his back. It felt strangely good, and a part of him wanted her to keep doing it but he shook his head and managed to make it into the bedroom.

He didn't want to risk disturbing her, so he didn't switch on the bedroom light, which wasn't too bad as the bed was just right there. Getting her tucked in was a juggling act, as he had to lay her down on the bed and take her hat off before wrestling with the covers to get them over her, finally managing to do so. He let out a sigh and watched as Erwin nestled into the pillow. He had to admit, she was pretty cute, and without the hat reminded him of a little fox cub, what with her hair pointing out at the sides like ears.

Manny felt his face turn red and get hot as he tried to shake off the sudden unknown feelings within him. He felt… happy seeing her peacefully sleeping in his bed, and felt his stomach to turns as he admitted to himself that she wasn't that bad looking. Still, he thought Rachael was pretty good looking too, hell all the guys did. He finally shook himself free from the trance and walked into the living room, silently closing the door before turning the lights off and laying down on the couch to sleep, thinking that it was just a bit of dinner that didn't settle right with him that made him feel that way. He still didn't fall asleep for another good hour, his mind already thinking about the next day and the surprises in store for the whole group, finally managing to doze off just as half past 2 came around.


	3. Chapter 3

_Well, here is Chapter 3. This one was a bit of a doozy to write especially the ending, but I don't think I did too bad on the skirmish. As stated in Chapter 2, Chapter 4 will most likely come out September 1st as I have college coming up. For you who are following and enjoying the story, I sure hope I did alright here. Fight scenes are not really my forte unlike character development scenes, but it was worth a shot._

_And because I don't think I did this in Chapter 1, I don't own Girls und Panzer. I do own my original characters and the plot of the story._

* * *

The feeling of the warm sun's rays against her face woke up Erwin from her sleep, letting out a large yawn and stretching out, shifting the covers slightly. It took her a good few minutes before she was fully awake, and was shocked to find herself in a bed without her hat. She was able to recall the events of the previous day up until she fell asleep on Manny, at which she turned pink with embarrassment, remembering how comfortable she felt on him with his arm around her. Shaking her head, she was then able to hear something from behind the door, someone talking but about what she didn't know, so she climbed out of bed and opened the door.

What a shock she got when she saw Manny standing there sideways with one hand on the back of the couch, watching the news on the television. What made it even more shocking was he was half dressed, his dog tags the only thing on the top half of his body. He wasn't totally ripped and over muscular, but rather had a well-toned body, with some curvature to his arms from his exercises and from steadying himself on top of the tank whilst it moved. Erwin turned a deep red and felt her face heat up. Contrary to what some people thought, she did have crushes on boys like any other girl, as well as her own favorite Hollywood Heartthrobs. She had watched many a blockbuster about historical events despite the inaccuracies that were guaranteed in them, suffering even through the movie _Enemy at the Gates_ with its awkward sex scene between Jude Law and Rachel Weisz's characters of Vassili Zaitsev and Tania in a sleeping bag. As it turned out, there was just something attractive about Manny that just got her and made her feel like any of the gaggling girls who fawned over the likes of Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.

It wasn't until he finally turned his head to her that she realized how much of a mess she looked, her hair in need of a good brushing, the shirt collar popped up on one side, and the shirt itself looking disheveled. Fortunately her skirt remained fairly intact, but she didn't move, still frozen in admiration and shock. "You alright?" Came his smooth voice, snapping her out.

"H-hai." She smiled weakly. "How did I…"

"Get here? I carried you, lass. I tried to find Rachael so I could take you to the guest houses, but I lost her and couldn't think of anywhere else to go. Slept on the couch, not the first time I've done that so it's ok."

She then started to try and fix herself up, stopping when she felt his hands help smoothen out her hair, swearing mentally at how good it felt having his hands run through her hair. He smiled down at the StuG commander. "Lemme get your hat. I called Rachael a few minutes ago and she's gonna be here soon."

She stood there still embarrassed and when he came back, he plopped the hat on her head cockeyed. Her savior finally came, as a knock brought the two to the door. However, the embarrassment continued as Rachael was standing there with Saori, and attempted to hide her face, while Manny, seemingly oblivious to what was going on, grinned and gently patted her back. "Welp, I'll see you later on, Erwin." He said, still without a shirt on. Erwin replied hastily before she was whisked away by Saori. "She insisted on coming along." Rachael explained. "Don't know why though, I turned around and she was following me, so I just let her tag along. She did say something is Japanese but it was something I couldn't understand. Why don't you have a shirt on?"

"Gimme a break, Rachael." He sighed. "I woke up fifteen minutes ago and needed to check the news as to the weather today and the upcoming week. Just go escort them back and start the tour of the school starting with the building itself and make sure you don't go to the garage until I text ya, alright lass?"

"Yeah, yeah, cause you'll be briefing the lads. Got it."

Meanwhile, Saori had already started talking to Erwin, who was wishing right now that the whole event didn't happen in the first place. "What were you doing there at his house! And him without his shirt!"

"I… fell asleep on him, he tried to find Rachael and get to the guest houses but he couldn't find her so… he… carried me. To his place. And… put me in his bed while he slept on the couch." She explained, turning beet red. Saori gasped.

"So he does love you!"

"What!? No! I-I don't know! Why are you so interested!?"

"Well if I can't find myself a boyfriend on this trip, at least someone can."

"But we have only known each other for a day! That's no grounds for any relationship."

Saori huffed and pulled the StuG commander in close. "I am certain he loves you. You need to figure out if you love him back and tell him if you do or don't before something happens and you might accidentally break his heart! Now tell me, what did you feel when you first saw him this morning without a shirt?"

Erwin wished that she could get away from Saori, but seeing as Rachael was taking her sweet time chatting with Manny, she sighed and gave in. "I felt… strange. Like my heart stopped and was beating insanely fast at the same time while my face felt hot."

"I knew it! You do love him, even if you don't know it yet!" The radiowoman exclaimed. This caught Rachael's attention back to them. "I gotta get going." She smiled at Manny. "Make sure you get a shirt on."

"I will."

The walk back was awkward, with Saori casting glances over at Erwin, winking now and then, making the latter blush. They made it back to the guest houses where everyone was outside waiting. Erwin quickly went inside and changed into another school uniform before going outside with the others, noticing Saori whispering in the ears of the Anglerfish crew, making Hana smile and have a faint blush creep across her face, Mako's eyes widened slightly but no real change to her face, Miho blush and not really able to think of anything to say, and Yukari-

"Ehh? Eruvin's in love with Manii?" She asked, probably a bit too loud, causing several pairs of eyes to cast over to the loader and then to the StuG commander. _Kill me, please…_ She groaned pulling her hat down to try and hide her face. Fortunately before anymore embarrassment could be caused, Rachael cleared her throat.

"Alright ladies! It's my job to tour you all around the school telling you a brief history and tell you about how things work here until Manny tells me I can bring us to the garage to meet the guys. First stop is the cafeteria to get some grub."

The cafeteria was quiet, with only a few guys there serving a nice hot breakfast that went down well, with the teams sitting and chatting with one another, and Erwin trying to concentrate less on Saori and Manny and instead focus on the next few days. "Where is everyone?" Yukari asked. "Like I said, everyone on the team is in the garage. They made sure to eat early." The Australian replied, taking a sip from a cup of hot tea.

Over in the garage, Manny, now fully dressed with a tight white shirt on, stood in front of the whole New South Wales Tankery Team. Only a few, the freshmen, wore the full kit, with the rest wearing some variation distinguishing them from one another, such as Roscoe with his white cowboy hat and Kreiger with his Wehrmacht cap.

"Let's just get this out of the way as quickly and painlessly as possible so we can move on with the day." Manny addressed the crowd. "The scuttlebutt is true. We have a girl's tankery team on campus and will be challenging us in an exhibition skirmish."

A few murmurings, along with the exchange of cash for losing bets, went through the assembly for a minute or two before quieting down. The tankery commander continued. "They are the national champions from Japan, and not only will we be skirmishing with them, we might be facing them in the Triad Tournament. As they will be staying in the guest houses nearby the school, we will be interacting with them a lot, which means you all need to be on your best behavior. No sexual harassment of any kind. No sexist comments, no trying to peak up their skirts, and no misogynist talk or discussion at all in public. What you say in the tank with the microphone off and in your hut is up to you, but I do not want under any circumstances anyone to get into trouble."

"Well you say about sexual harassment, what about when you carried that one Sheila to your place?" Came a voice in the back, followed by several snickers from the first years, making the Scot growl. "Who the hell said that? And who told you that?"

The crowd parted, showing a smirking black haired American who stood a full foot below Manny, his dark brown eyes having a mischievous twinkle about them.

"Ryan told Roscoe this morning and I happened to overhear. He said about you taking that Erwin chick in your arms like a blushing bride, and said that he had gotten a text from Rachael about you having her at your place. Isn't that sexual harassment?"

He swore under his breath.

"For clarification, Mulligan, what I did is not sexual harassment. She was tired, I didn't want to wake her up, I took her to my place after I couldn't find Rachael, she slept on the bed and I on the couch."

"Heh. Says you. I think you not only broke your own rules, but you went and had a bit of fun with her too, bit of kissy-kissy fucky-fucky?"

The rage at how annoying he was reached a breaking point as something within Manny snapped, making him stomp over to the first year and slam his fist into his gut. "Now listen up!" He yelled as Mulligan doubled over in pain and several around winced. "I do not want to hear any more lip from you. No sexual harassment of any kind. No making fun of a superior officer. And absolutely no questioning me. You got that!?"

Knowing better, the rest of the crews yelled out a clear "Yes sir!" and snapped to attention, the delinquent slowly picking himself up and straightening up.

"Good. I hope you all follow that order to the letter, or so help me you will be scrubbing every inch of this place with a toothbrush and my foot up your asses."

The silence let him know that they all took in what he said, and he pulled his phone out and shot a text over to Rachael, letting her know that the guys were debriefed.

Back in the school after breakfast was finished, the girls had congregated in Ryan's office, the president not there because, as Rachael explained, "needed to go to Sydney to see the committee that oversees the Triad Tournament."

"Well, might as well start at the beginning. It's the best place to begin." She sighed, leaning back against her brother's desk. "The school's founder was Jackson Davids, once a member of the British 8th Army, the Desert Rats, and former M3 Stuart commander. It was about 1962, when he was about in his fifties, when he saw the various tankery programs pop up across the world, but for girls. As a former vet, he thought it was wrong to exclude males from it, and so he joined a campaign for the first coed schools, the United States starting up the first one out of New York Harbor. Several others followed suit, and not only did co-ed schools start coming up, but so did schools back on land to cut costs and to allow for bigger training areas and battlegrounds. Come when Davids turned 76, he founded the New South Wales School of Tankery, and for the first time, allowed only boys in and teaching only tankery, aiming it to be the main route that future recruits for the Australian Armored Corps to come by. Davids died in 1993, but the school that he founded finally was accepted by the Australian Tankery Federation, and the first students were enrolled in late 94. His son, Taylor Davids, continued his father's dedication and is now the chairman of the ATF."

"Wow." Anzu spoke up. "That's some history."

"Heh. You have no idea…"

She stared out the window in Ryan's office, her face becoming soft and sad for the first time since she met the team. "Although he is the chairman, pretty much the entire board is against him and his family, and withholds requests for expanding the school into other subjects or transferring to a coed school to attract more people."

"Why? That makes no sense?" Miho asked, Yukari translating for her.

"Remember when Jackson Davids joined the push for coed schools and founded our school to be the first all guys school? The board was made up of immigrants from Japan as they were the first to standardize Tankery across the nation and the first with standardized rules after the Second World War. They abhor anyone who is related to him as they believe that he was killing the sport by introducing boys to it, and our school is a massive blemish on their traditionalist ideals, so they are slowly strangling us."

"Is there any way to get around them or let people know about the way they are treating you and get some kind of thing going to help?"

"Dad says we need to just weather the storm, that we will preserver if we stay patient."

"Your dad?"

She nodded. "Ryan and I are Taylor's kids. Rachael and Ryan Davids. You would think that we would be able to get anything, but with the board being against anyone with the same last name as us and our father wanting us to take care of things ourselves without too much of his help, we pretty much have to make do. The Sentinels are complete trash, the only reason we have them is because of how numerous they are. Rams too are cheap because the ATF sold a lot of Cromwells and Comets to some school in Canada for the Rams, which they gladly accepted unsurprisingly. The only really good tank we have is the Co-er lead tank, and even then the guys need to get the parts from shops in Sydney, using cash from our treasury. Hell, they put us up against average run of the mill schools instead of the big name schools in New Zealand, New Guinea, Malaysia, India, and Japan to justify giving us crap tanks."

Rachael let out a nervous chuckle. "Damnit. I didn't want to get you all down. It's my job to give you a tour and tell you about the place, not about our problems."

It went without saying that all of the Ōarai girls felt that familiar pang in their chests as they remembered how close their own school was close to being shut down. Suddenly they all weren't too concerned about being entered in a foreign tournament if it meant that New South Wales School of Tankery would gain the publicity it needed to bring the students that would prevent it from being shut down completely. The sole beep of a phone broke the silence, and upon inspection of the text she had gotten, the Aussie smiled softly. "Well the guys are ready. Hope you're ready to see their stupid mugs."

* * *

Even with the previous conversation with Rachael in their minds, it didn't stop the likes of Saori from making sure they looked "presentable" for the guys, the Anglerfish radio woman itching to see if there were any that took her fancy and that she could try some things she had read in a magazine that, supposedly, would increase chances of getting a man. Of course, when Erwin tried to tell her that whenever she tried what the magazines said it would go wrong, Saori just replied "Well it can't hurt! Besides, who knows? You might want to try some and it might help you with Manny", making the StuG commander turn red with frustration and embarrassment. Caeser, hiding her own little smile at her friend's teasing, patted her back. "Don't worry, Eruvin. She'll get over it, hopefully, eventually."

It didn't help her when as they arrived in the garage, Manny was wearing that tight white shirt, better than him being topless, but still not a lot of help. The girls were able to get some idea of what she and Saori saw that morning, leading to a few, mainly first years, blushing and talking amongst themselves. "Well Miho," He smirked. "This is my team, behind them their tanks."

Immediately the crews bowed sharply before returning to standing up straight and still, well as still as they could get, with a couple of nudges here and there to bring attention to the girls in front of them. Yukari immediately made a beeline for the tanks, practically dragging Miho with her. "Wow! I've never seen a Sentinel AC I or AC IV in person before! They were designed for the Australian army, but by the time development finished they were replaced with the M4 Sherman, and it was a similar story with the Ram IIs in Canada, only they were used as training vehicles for Sherman crews!"

Before she could continue, the sound of a roaring engine drew the attention of the Ōarai team. Into the garage drove a Comet in a very faded olive green color, stopping in front of the girls. "This, lassies," Roscoe grinned as he climbed out of the tank. "Is our lead tank."

"You have a Comet!? But I thought they were expensive to keep in shape?"

"You're telling us, especially with the modifications we made to it."

Manny nodded. "Engine can go up to 70 kph easy, got her mounted on modern suspension, and installed a vertical stabilizer. All that, though, made her heavy so we had to shave armor off of her. The engine isn't too nice with us either. Keeps overheating a lot, so we have to limit ourselves to 50 kph most of the time, 60 if we wanna flank, and 70 in case of emergency. It sucks, but we're hoping the latest tune up will stop it from getting antsy."

Two other guys from the crowd walked up to Miho. "You already know Roscoe and me. These two are Henry and Santos."

"It is good to finally meet you." The Englishman smiled warmly, using what little Japanese he knew to effect.

"Sí, pero no te vayas de pintar los tanques de color rosa." The Spaniard quipped.

"What did he say?"

"He, uh, said it was good to meet you too, but would prefer it if you didn't go around painting things pink."

This made the freshmen sweat drop, remembering the first match where they painted their M3 Lee totally pink. "Please forgive him." Henry continued. "He's very… shall I say bombastic? Speaks before thinking a lot."

"Hai. It's alright." Miho replied, the two smiling at each other and shaking hands.

"Now where the hell is Sam?"

"You rang?"

Manny jumped back as the Aussie popped up from behind the Comet. "The hell? Where did you-?"

"Eh, just been off having a kip. I was nackered from being a sparky last arvo on the Com. I can fix any seventy-seven set but that radio in her is quite the bitch."

Roscoe sighed. "And you wonder why we need a dictionary sometimes."

The bushie tossed a wrench in the air and caught it, sliding it into his pocket. "You'd see me around a lot more if there wasn't naff all to do out hear near the gaffa. Usually just look under the nearest coolibah and you'll spot me."

Blank looks on the girls indicated that every single word had gone over their heads, and Yukari didn't even bother translating what was apparently gibberish. Rachael shook her head. "He said he was off having a nap because he was tired from trying to fix the radio on the Comet, and that since there isn't a lot to do around because we're near the Outback, if you need him, usually look under a coolibah, a tree, for him."

A chorus of "Ahh"s came following the translation, leaving Sam looking lost. "What's the matter?"

"Most of them can't understand English," Roscoe explained. "Especially not your poor excuse for a language."

To everyone's surprise, the Aussie turned to the group and said "Watashi wa ikutsu ka no konran o hikiokoshita koto o hidoku zan'nendesu. Watashi o yurushitekudasai" before bowing. ("I am terribly sorry that I caused some confusion. Please forgive me.")

"How the hell did you learn to speak Japanese?"

Henry snapped his fingers. "I remember, he was our translator when we went to Japan that one year because he thought that Japanese would be an interesting language to occupy his time with."

"I totally forgot that." Manny rubbed the back of his head before clearing his throat. "Right, well, now that we've been successfully derailed, I think we should get back on track by me asking Miho when would be the best time for our skirmish? We could do it now if they'd like."

Upon translation, Miho nodded. "After seeing what your line up is, we're pretty eager to go up against you."

"Great! Just one more thing. I had a chat here with the lads earlier, and Mulligan," He said pointing to the first year. "He, uh, told me that he had looked over your vehicles and thought that it might be a good idea to see if you would like to swap for one. Mulligan even said he, Kreiger, and the rest of the others in his tank wouldn't mind you swapping like say your Type 89 for their AC IV."

"No way!" Noriko yelled after Yukari told them his suggestion. "Our tank may not have the best firepower or armor, but it's our tank! We wouldn't trade it for anything!"

The Scot smiled. "Perfectly fine. Go ahead and mount up. Roscoe'll hand you maps of the grounds we will be fighting."

When the girls were out of earshot, Rachael pulled Manny close. "Mulligan suggested that?"

"Well, uh, not really…" Sheepishly rubbing his right hand. She noticed the gesture and her eyes widened. "Did you really do what I think you did?"

"He was pissing me off!" He gritted his teeth. "Said that I bedded Erwin."

"How did he-?"

"Overheard Ryan telling Roscoe."

Her hands raised up and gripped her hair as she let out a frustrated sigh. "I know he's annoying but seriously? And he pisses everyone off! What made you decide to punch him?"

"I don't know!" He almost shouted. The air around them was still as he took a deep breath. "I just don't know. It was on impulse."

Something clicked inside Rachael. Manny was not the type to take any kind of insult to his person to heart, shrugging it off and proving the opposite any way he could. Attacks on his morals, his honor, or anyone close to him, however, and he would become very confrontational. She remembered when he flattened some grade A douchbag who called her a whore for hanging around a group of guys and not accepting his terrible advances on her. It made sense seeing as he saw her as a sister, but what about Erwin? Yes they were guests but… _He couldn't have already fallen for her… could he? I mean, is he able to even know what love is? It's the only thing I can think of…_

"Say, Manny," She started, her tone a bit lighter. "When you were carrying Erwin, did anything happen?"

"Not you too…" He groaned, earning a punch to his arm.

"I don't mean like that. I know that when I first met the sheilas I felt a bit off, I think from excitement of what was going to, and indeed, happen."

"Oh. Now that you mention it…"

"Yes?"

"Well, I did feel a bit odd. Figured it was tea not sitting right with my innards, but I think being excited it a bit more plausible. My face felt very warm after I put her on my bed."

"Mm? Well, you better get going. Don't want to disappoint."

He grinned and ran off to the Comet, hopping in just as Roscoe started to climb up the side. Henry appeared next to Rachael and cracked his fingers. "So, he got a thing for her?"

She couldn't help but smile softly. "I think so, but I think he has no idea what those feelings are, and I need more evidence. I doubt he's had any sort of relationship with a girl that was more than friends. You look after him, alright Henry?"

The Englishman nodded. "Will do Ma."

* * *

As both teams assembled in their respective starting zones, Miho looked over the map again. Starting from the North, where she and the rest of her tanks were stationed, an old railroad track that looked as if it hadn't been used in the past couple of decades stood behind them, the ground rising up slightly along the track that ran from the Northeast corner around to the Northwest. To the East the ground sank down into a valley sparsely filled with trees and bushes, and having the odd big rocks along the ridgeline. The middle was defined by a deep cut running from the North to the South staging areas, flanked by rocks that were along the sides, the cut deep enough to even hide the large Porsche Tiger. Between the cut and the valley to the East was a series of small rises in the land along with rocks and shrubs placed haphazardly around. As for the West, it was the most terrain heavy. It had several large hills with steep inclines and huge rocks, allowing for good firing positions that could be easily flanked. The ground there also dipped down slightly, just enough that the turrets of the Tiger and Panzer IV would most likely be in full view.

All this worried Team Anglerfish's commander. The team they were up against was perfect for this terrain, the Sentinel AC Is able to maneuver pretty much out of sight due to their low profiles, the AC IVs able to get good firing positions that could shut down many paths, and the Comet combined lightning speed with a low profile, allowing it to use either the West or East to flank around. The only tanks they had that had low profiles were the two tank destroyers, Turtle Team's Hetzer and Hippo Team's StuGIII. Sure the rocks provided good cover, but the more mobile New South Wales team would be able to lock them down with combined fire from the AC IVs and Ram IIs while the AC Is and the Comet flanked.

Then again, they had been in worse positions before, against Saunders when they were tapping their radios, against Pravda when completely surrounded, and against Kuromoromine when against the mighty Maus. Majority of NSW's team could be penetrated even by Duck Team's 57mm gun, with only the Ram IIs and the frontal armor of the Comet being stronger. If they could hit them, they would easily go down.

Over at the Southern staging area, Manny wiped the sweat his brow. The sun was definitely heating things up quickly, and he wished that one of these days in the upcoming months would rain, but forecast said no rain, clear skies, and temperatures reaching high 40Cs by midday for pretty much all week. He wasn't used to the heat like many of the other members of the crews, namely Roscoe and Sam, who were from places that had that kind of heat. Granted, the girls probably wouldn't be doing any better.

He was feeling confident, and who wouldn't in his position? Even though one-on-one Ōarai's tanks were better, his tanks were better suited to the terrain, what with the many flanking opportunities and multiple ways to control movement on the battlefield. If one is able to control where his or her opponent goes and is able to force them into doing specific things, then victory is easily theirs. The only thing though was the ace up Ōarai's sleeves: They adapt on the fly extraordinarily well. Given enough time, they would most likely be able to counter anything he could throw at them, so he had to make this a quick match.

A loud bang coming from firework explosion signaled the beginning of the match, knocking both commanders from their thoughts.

"Panzer Vor!"

"Move it out!"

Manny immediately started barking orders through his microphone, which unlike Ōarai's, was one that fit in his hand, was connected to the main radio set by a cable, and had a button on the side that needed to be pushed in to allow him to talk. "Alright, same plan as usual Lads! Longshots will stay behind here using the rocks as cover and protect the middle, shoot anyone who is brave enough to cross."

"Jawol, you can count on us." Kreiger's voice crackled through Manny's earpiece.

"Hammer team will go up the middle through the cut. Recce One, go to the West. Remember, flank them or get them choked up. Recce Two will provide back up where needed, but for now will go East. Dingo team will take the East as well."

Like a well-oiled machine, the groups split up, the AC IVs setting up in positions where they would have nice big firing lanes with the Ram IIs driving down into the big cut and already heading towards rocks that would give them good cover. Three AC Is went over to the hills to the West, making sure they stayed as south as possible before looping up North. The other three followed Manny in his Comet straight Northeastward, aiming to find tanks there and being able to use their speed to flank them.

Up North, Miho was just starting to give orders to her tanks. "They are faster than us, but we can easily knock them out if our shots connect." She began. "I would like Hippo and Turtle team to stay behind the rocks in the middle. You two are the most vulnerable to being outflanked."

"Hai, we shall provide fire support where possible." Erwin replied.

"Leopon, Mallard, and Rabbit teams should go West. Even though two of you have hull mounted guns, you still have turrets that have enough power to punch through their armor. Leopon should act as a shield to deflect incoming rounds and should focus on their Sentinel AC IVs and Ram IIs."

"Count on us." Nakajima replied excitedly.

"Anteater and Duck teams will follow us to the East. Please don't go too far ahead or get too far behind us. We need to stay together as close as possible to avoid getting outflanked."

"We will parry their shots and spike hard!" Noriko spoke for the volleyball club.

"Everyone, please listen closely. The Comet is the most dangerous tank they have. If you encounter it, please try to track it. It's the only way we can really take it out."

Within the next ten minutes, both teams were moving along their respective routes, and Momo was starting to get a bit antsy already. Even though she knew their Hetzer wouldn't last if outflanked, she still wanted to go forward and attack, get stuck in. Of course, as soon as Anzu rested a hand on her friend's shoulder, the P.R. Manager calmed down slightly, anxious to get the battle started at her end. No sooner had she thought that than the two tank destroyers were immediately fired upon, the Australian team being quicker in deploying and their Ram IIs already setting their plan in motion, with one of them moved up ahead of the rest taking pot shots around areas where it would seem to be a good place for tanks to be, inadvertently bouncing a shot off of the sloped armor of Turtle team's Hetzer.

"I found them!" The commander was able to say just before the loud report of Hippo team's 75mm was unleashed, giving way to a smoke cloud and a pop as a white flag sprouted from the hull of the Canadian tank. Another couple shots flew by the German tank destroyers, firing just too late as the other tanks reversed back into cover, continuing to pop in and out harassing them.

"This is Hippo team!" Erwin transmitted. "Have met the enemy and they are ours! They have sent their Ram IIs towards us and we managed to get a kill!"

Over West, the Tiger P, B1, and M3 Lee had found themselves in a similar situation, this time with smaller 2 pounder guns bouncing off of the tough front armor. However, there were only two Sentinel AC Is shooting at them and darting around as best as they could in the confines of the hills. The third one, the leader of Recce One, managed to find a way around to the rear of the Japanese West flank and fired a shot bouncing off of the top of the Lee. This made the freshmen inside, even with their experience, turn their full hull all the way around to face the lightly armored and armed AC I, instead of just turning their 37mm gun in the top turret around, as it would easily cut through the armor. It had the desired effect though, as before they could aim, a well-placed shot into the engine of the American medium tank managed to knock it out, the second casualty of the day. The lead AC I was next to go, the B1 landing a good shot with its 47mm gun.

"Midoriko!" Nakajima called over the radio. "We can't swing our turret around without hitting either you or the hillside! You're going to have to provide rear guard with your turret!"

"H-hai! We will do our best!"

"This is Leopon team! Rabbit team is knocked out, but we got one of them as well, one of the Sentinel AC Is! There's two more harassing us on this side!"

The messages from Leopon and Hippo didn't go unheard by Saori in the Panzer IV. However, they were in a mess of their own. Anglerfish, Anteater, and Duck had made it down in the large valley and were halfway traversing it when the other three AC Is and Manny's Comet barreled down on them from the ridgeline. The suddenness of enemy contact surprised gunners on both sides, with a shot from Hana and Santos shaking everyone into reality, the shots both well placed but bounced via good angling by Roscoe and Mako. The Chi-Nu managed its first kill of an AC I as it was too close to miss, but the momentum of the cruiser tank kept it going as it collided into the side of the Japanese tank, taking the tracks off of the right side and making it a good target for another of the AC Is. The Comet kept its speed and zoomed by the other two tanks towards the North, having just received the transmission from Hammer team, leaving two AC Is against a Panzer IV and a Type 89.

"Duck team, can you handle them?" Miho asked. "We will try to catch the Comet and keep it from flanking Hippo and Turtle."

"We got it!" Came the enthusiastic response. To punctuate it further, another AC I was rendered out of action by the 57mm on Type 89 as a 2 pounder shell grazed the cheek of the turret.

By the time Mako had turned the tank around to chase after the Comet, it was long gone, so they opted to try and follow as well as alerting the two tank destroyers in the middle about what was coming their way. "Miho!" Saori called up. "Hippo team reports that they are currently engaging the Ram IIs in the center, and Leopon team says that they lost Rabbit team. Both say that they have already taken out a tank."

Miho nodded. "Tell them to hold on as best as they can, and tell Hippo team to look out for the Comet as it is flanking around."

Over in the aforementioned Comet, Manny was sifting through the information that Sam had just relayed to him, letting a small grin break through. "Good. Acceptable casualties. Let Recce One know that they should track the Tiger and see if they can't get the B1 taken out before moving to the center to help Hammer team. By the time they get there, we should have both of their tank destroyers taken out and we'll move along to the West. Any of them try to cross the field, have the AC IVs deal with them. Hammer team should try to keep the two in the center pinned while we get around to the back."

Meanwhile, over in the center, the Ram IIs were doing something rather unusual. They had moved themselves out of cover enough so their guns could aim at the two tanks behind the rocks, and instead of going in and out of cover like they were doing a moment before, they were firing at what seemed faster than usual and not moving whatsoever. The reality behind this was that the drivers had moved out from the compartment over to where the loader resides, and was helping load shells into the 6 pounder guns, resulting in effective suppressing fire. Indeed, Hippo and Turtle team couldn't poke out to shoot back as almost every few seconds a shell whizzed over the top.

"Erwin, your boyfriend is going around to flank you. You might want to cover it." Saori radioed over, making Erwin turn red. "He's not my boyfriend!"  
"Not yet he isn't."

"Saori says that their Comet is coming around to flank!" Erwin patched over to the president's team, a hint of embarrassment in her voice as she tried to keep herself from wanting to punch Saori in the face. "We can't turn our backs on the group in the middle, so you will have to watch and make sure they don't try to take advantage of us. We will cover the rear!"

"Hai. Good luck with it." Came the reply. The StuG III then turned around, facing the most obvious route just as the British Cruiser tank barreled into view. Saemonza was able to get a quick shot off, bouncing off of the turret of the tank but knocking the aim off enough that the tank had to stop to be able to line up another shot, this one taking the right track off of the Hetzer before scurrying away, dodging another shot from Hippo team. "Good job Saemonza!" Erwin complemented her friend. "We didn't get them, but we scared them off."

A loud bang to her left surprised her, and when she climbed out she was able to see what it was: the Ram IIs had advanced up and Turtle team had just nailed one-

*BANG*

-two before the remaining Ram II circled around and managed to take out the Hetzer with a clean shot into the rear.

"Yarareta!" Anzu radioed in usual fashion. Before the Ram could do anything though, it rocked back from the force of the StuG III's 7.5 cm StuK 40 L/43 shell penetrating the front armor, knocking it out. "Miho, we were able to take out their Ram II force and prevent the Comet from knocking anyone out here, but we lost Turtle team."

"I understand. Reposition aiming to the West and try to snipe any of their AC Is. I am worried that we have not encountered their AC IVs yet."

"Duck team here, we finished the last AC I. They were good, but we caught their serve and hit it back. We're moving across to Hippo team's position."

The movement across the middle by the Type 89 wasn't unnoticed, as two 17 pounder guns began to lead the target. "Steady Mulligan." Krieger said as he watched the light tank move through his binoculars. "If you miss this shot, then you have to do whatever we dare you to do. Verstanden?"

"Yeah, I verstanden Fritz." The first year was having trouble concentrating, as his gut still was reeling from the sudden punch that Manny gave him. A deep chuckle came from the German. "Jacques, get another round ready for when he misses."

The mute nodded and plucked up a shell easily. He had been mute ever since he was a kid as a result of an accident involving scissors cutting his vocal chords. From that day onwards he never really was able to communicate using sign language, but rather through body language and the way he would look at a person.

"Recce Two and Hammer team are gone, Krieger." Markus reported to his commander. "Their StuG is still operational and could pose a threat if we decide to mover, kommandant."

"Ja. That is why we need to be careful to make sure this shot hits. Viktor?"

"Ready to move when ready. Make sure shot doesn't miss, da?"

"Will everyone shut the hell up!? I'm trying to concentrate."

"Oh there's a first."

"You better shut up Ruskie or I'll kick your skull in."

The tank went quiet except for the sound of the engine humming and the turret turning. "Ok… I got it."

"Longshots, feuer frei!"

Mulligan's shot did hit Duck team, right in the tracks making it spin around sharply, allowing the other shell to tear into the soft front armor for a kill, the white flag popping up midst the smoke. "Well, you hit them."

"Damn right I did! Now let's get out of here."

"Stimmt. Viktor?

"Hold on to your zadnitsas, comrades!" The Russian grinned madly as the Sentinel AC IV roared around, facing the West along with the other AC IV, the two speeding off as fast as their tanks could go for new positions where they could take out the pesky Tiger P.

"This is Duck team! We got knocked out!"

"Did you see who did it?"

"No! I don't think so, but I'm sure it came from the South!"

Miho bit her bottom lip. The Sentinel AC IVs had revealed themselves, but if they were good, which she was very certain of, they would have relocated to a better position. "Alright. Leopon and Mallard team, back out and head towards where we started."

"Leopon here, Mallard team was just taken out by their Comet. We didn't have a chance to get a shot off on it. We did however manage to get the other AC Is."

"Ok. Be careful on the way. Hippo team, cover them as much as you can."

"Hai!"

The battle was progressing quickly. Already both teams were down to only three tanks, Ōarai with their Panzer IV, Porsche Tiger, and StuG III, and NSWST with their two AC IVs and their Comet. The heat of midday was beginning to set in, turning the tanks into saunas. Most of Manny's team had unbuttoned their uniform jackets and taken off whatever was underneath. Santos had to grab a rag from his back pocket to wipe his face clear of sweat, and even Sam was occasionally clearing his forehead of sweat. The girls had similar issues of heat, but none did anything more than taking off their dark grey jackets and drinking from canteens of water.

Manny opened the commander's hatch of the tank and stood halfway out of the tank, one hand on the side of the cupola, the other on the radio. "So we lost all Recce teams and Hammer team?" Krieger asked Manny, he too halfway out the tank.

"Seems that way. They are doing much better than I thought. Still, we have two 17 pounder guns and a Comet on our side." The Scott replied. "I think we should blitz them, go full speed towards them, shoot first, and hope we hit. At least you two will get knocked out, but we should be able to win."

"Manny, that's a completely idiotic idea." Henry yelled up. "Let them come to us instead, remember? Force them to go where we want them to be."

"History isn't for the meek, Henry. Risks are meant to be taken, and a commander must follow his gut to the grave if need be."

"You stubborn fool." He shook his head. "You lost us this match."

Ignoring the last comment, he clicked the radio on. "Alright Longshots, here's the plan. Longshot 1 you will be on the right flank. Longshot 2 will be on the left. We will charge them, get them surprised shooting at our tank, and you will take advantage of it by knocking them out. Got it?"

"As you say, Manfred, but I'm very apprehensive about driving right towards a tank destroyer and a Tiger." Krieger nodded, climbing back down into the tank.

"Roscoe, full speed ahead."

"Damning the torpedoes, Manny."

Things did not look good for Miho and her team. Even though she still had the powerful Tiger P, she knew that Hippo team's StuG III wouldn't do well due to the hull mounted gun, and knew that all the tanks left over would be able to penetrate the front hull of Leopon team's tank fairly easy. If the AC IVs and Comet chose to seek them out, and that was a big if, they could stand somewhat of a chance with the thin armor of the British and Australian tanks, but there was no way they would do that. Even with the AC IVs having much slower speed than the Comet, they were very maneuverable.

Of course, she was proved wrong when Hippo team shot back from their position, Erwin climbing out the hatch. "We just spotted the three tanks moving up the West! I believe they intend to engage us!"

Suddenly, Miho remembered back to when she and the rest of Anglerfish team had conversed with Roscoe over dinner at her house. _'If I had to name a couple of flaws it would be that he's a risk taker and he's very stubborn. Once he has his mind set on something, you just gotta go with it.'_

"Everyone, listen please!" She quickly radioed. "We need to get into position now. They aren't planning on luring us out I don't think. Roscoe said to me two days ago that Manny is a risk taker, and I am pretty sure that he is going to try to take us head on, losing his two AC IVs in the process but hopefully knocking all of our tanks out.

"What I need is for us to arrange in a line as hull down as we can get. Leopon and Hippo teams, you must take out their Sentinel IVs before they can fire. We will deal with their Comet."

She lowered herself down and placed her hand on Hana's shoulder. "Do you think you can take them out when they are at full speed?"

"It is going to be tough, but I think I can at least track them." The gunner softly smiled. Miho nodded. "Alright, let's do our best!"

What a surprise it was to Manny when they saw the three Ōarai tanks with their guns pointing towards him and his tanks. This did not deter him though, the Comet having drifted around the corner at 70 kilometers per hour, firing a blind shot taking the track off of the Porsche Tiger, and continuing to go North, attempting to draw the fire of the tanks while the less maneuverable Sentinel AC IVs made their way around. However the tanks instead held their fire until the two Australian tanks had rounded the corner. Saemonza's shot slammed into the underneath of one, immediately knocking it out. "This is Longshot 2! We've been hit!" The radio in the Comet crackled into life. "They must have out-strategized you, Manny!"

Krieger turned his radio on and growled. "Viktor! Stay behind Longshot 2! Mulligan! You better make a damn good shot!"

While Mako was repositioning the Panzer IV, Viktor moved to behind the knocked out Longshot 2, only the turret and front of the tank sticking out a little at an angle, rendering the next shot from the Tiger's 88 a miss, followed by bouncing the StuG III's shot. "Feuer!"

At first the Tiger seemed fine after the 17 pounder hit, but after a few seconds the engine died, the shot having hit the transmission through the lower glacis. A second shot managed to score the knockout punch. Another shot from Hippo team was able to penetrate the hull of Longshot 1, rocking the tank and knocking it out. Now there were two tanks against one, but this one was now zooming back towards the remaining tanks. Hana slowly wiped a bead of sweat from running into her eye as she tried to lead the target, while Santos steadied his aim in the zigzagging Comet. Time seemed to slow down like in the match with Saunders as both guns fired simultaneously, the shells flying through the air towards the targets.

The 77mm HV shell hit first, slamming into the front of the German medium tank and knocking it out, the white flag popping up with a dull bang. Meanwhile, the 75mm shell from Anglerfish team was well placed, but due to the zigzagging of the tank, it grazed the side armor, cutting a deep grove but not deep enough to cause any real damage. It was now up to Hippo team to take out the fast and agile Comet.

However, as if an omen from whatever powers that may be, the Comet shook as it approached. "The hell?" Manny cursed under his breath. "What was that?"

The answer came very soon after as the engine gave off a horrid sound and exploded in a cloud of smoke, the tank rolling to a halt in front of the StuG's gun, both commanders looking at one another. "Erm… Well this is quite awkward." The Scott rubbed the back of his head. Erwin nodded. "So what do we do now?"

"I guess you just get it over with," He started before the white flag popped up. "Or, the tank could realize that it took significant damage via the engine overheating. That'll work too."

A bit later afterwards, the two teams met back up at the garage, their tanks already in spots to be worked on later, and Rachael standing, shaking her head at the group. "That was the most anticlimactic ending to a match I have ever seen." She chuckled. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"He wasn't, that's what." Henry sighed. Before Manny could retort, though, Ryan walked in. "Ryan? Why are you here? I thought you were Sydney seeing the Triad Tournament Committee " Rachael asked.

"Well I thought that I should check up on you, and it looks like I missed the skirmish. Pity, I'm sure it had an amazing conclusion."

A few chuckles and giggles emitted from the group, and he mentally told himself to ask Manny about it. "Anyways, as Rachael said, I was in Sydney, but someone wanted to come see the Japanese National Champions himself."

One of the garage side doors opened, and in walked a fairly unusual man. He stood a good 6 feet tall, wearing a black baseball cap along with a dull green jacket and pants and a white buttoned up shirt. His light brown hair was tied at the back in a ponytail a foot long, and below kind yet stern dark eyes framed by square glasses sat a light mustache, and to the sides long, thick sideburns extending to chin level.

"Ladies, this is Taylor Davids, the chairman of the Australian Tankery Federation. Mine and Rachael's father."


End file.
